Advani to clash with Aditya Mehta in snooker trials for Asian Games

Mumbai, Sep 8 (UNI) Pankaj Advani will play Aditya Mehta and Yasin Merchant will open with Rafat Habib in the first matches of the 4th and final Asian Games snooker trials commencing tomorrow at the Goregaon Sports Club.

The trials will be inaugurated by Dr Sham Agarwal, president of the Goregaon Sports Club which hosted the 2005 Nationals.

Geet Sethi, world billiards champion, speaking on the eve of the trials here today, said the tournament would be exciting especially with all the top three Pankaj, Yasin and Manan Chandra in ominous form after the World Team Championship in San Jose.

Meanwhile, the national billiards trials would also be held at the same time with the top three -- Ashok Shandilya, Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi, having already made sure of their positions in the billiards team. Shandilya, runner-up at Bhopal, won at Indore and Nagpur and has 45 points with Pankaj on 36 and Geet Sethi on 31.

Khel Ratna Pankaj Advani along with Yasin Merchant have made sure of the first two places with the number three at the moment Manan Chandra (39 points) having to watch out for Rupesh Shah and Rafath Habib close on his heels with 24 points each.

In case Pankaj opts for snooker, there will be a play-off between Devendra Joshi and B Bhaskar for the vacant third spot in billiards.

Following this, the No 4 (Joshi or Bhaskar) and the player next in rank, possibly Dhruv Sitwala, will be in line for Carambole Camp for the pocketless billiards event.

The camp winner gets 16 points, the No 2 logs 13 and the No 3 garners 10 points.

In the ladies section, Anuja Thakur leads in both the 9 Ball and 8 Ball Pool. The recent Arjuna awardee has indicated her preference for 8 Ball Pool.

Positions after three camps and points in brackets: Billiards: 1. Ashok Shandilya (45), 2. Pankaj Advani (36), 3. Geet Sethi (31).

The pruned billiards players are as follows: 4. Devendra Joshi (21), 5. B Bhaskar (21), 6. Dhruv Sitwala (20), 7. Sourav Kothari (16), 8. Shyam Jagtiani (10), 9. K Venkatesh.

Snooker: 1. Pankaj Advani (51), 2. Yasin Merchant (45), 3. Manan Chandra (39), 4. Rupesh Shah (24), 5. Rafath Habib (24), 6. Aditya Mehta (21), 7. Ashok Shandilya (19), 8. Alok Kumar (17). Pruned Player: Neeraj Kumar (10).

Women: 9 Ball Pool: 1. Anuja Thakur, 2. M Chitra, 3. Meenal Thakur, 4.

Vidya Pillai.

8 Ball Pool: 1. Anuja Thakur, 2. M Chitra, 3. Vidya Pillai, 4. R Umadevi.

UNI GS MAZ SBA HT2107